An official website of the United States government
Abstract Recent field studies have shown that the presence of ash in the atmosphere can produce measurable attenuation of Global Positioning System (GPS) signals (Aranzulla et al., 2013,https://doi.org/10.1007/s10291-012-0294-4; Larson, 2013,https://doi.org/10.1002/grl.50556; Larson et al., 2017,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvolgeores.2017.04.005). The ability to detect plumes using GPS is appealing because many active volcanoes are already instrumented with high‐quality receivers. However, analyses using a Ralyeigh approximation have shown that the large attenuations cannot be explained by the scattering and absorption associated with ash or hydrometeors alone. Here, we show that the extinction of GPS signals, which fall into the L‐band of the electromagnetic spectrum, may be exacerbated significantly by excess surface charge on pyroclasts. Indeed, volcanic eruptions are often accompanied by a range of electrostatic processes, leading, in some cases, to spectacular lightning storms. We use a modified Mie scattering model to demonstrate that electrostatic effects can increase the extinction of L‐band radiation by up to an order of magnitude, producing attenuations consistent with those observed in the field. Thus, future work involving GPS as a tool to remotely probe plumes must take into account the electrification of ash in radiative transfer models. Additionally, we propose that the sensitivity of GPS to particle charging may catalyze the development of new techniques to explore electrostatic processes in plumes, especially if GPS measurements are complemented with millimeter‐wave RADAR measurements.
more »
« less
Squeeze Dispersion and the Effective Diapycnal Diffusivity of Oceanic Tracers
Abstract We describe a process called “squeeze dispersion” in which the squeezing of oceanic tracer gradients by waves, eddies, and bathymetric flow modulates diapycnal diffusion by centimeter to meter‐scale turbulence. Due to squeeze dispersion, the effective diapycnal diffusivity of oceanic tracers is different and typically greater than the average “local” diffusivity, especially when local diffusivity correlates with squeezing. We develop a theory to quantify the effects of squeeze dispersion on diapycnal oceanic transport, finding formulas that connect density‐averaged tracer flux, locally measured diffusivity, large‐scale oceanic strain, the thickness‐weighted average buoyancy gradient, and the effective diffusivity of oceanic tracers. We use this effective diffusivity to interpret observations of abyssal flow through the Samoan Passage reported by Alford et al. (2013,https://doi.org/10.1002/grl.50684) and find that squeezing modulates diapycnal tracer dispersion by factors between 0.5 and 3.
more »
« less
- PAR ID:
- 10459609
- Publisher / Repository:
- DOI PREFIX: 10.1029
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Geophysical Research Letters
- Volume:
- 46
- Issue:
- 10
- ISSN:
- 0094-8276
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- p. 5378-5386
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
Abstract We report results from a self‐consistent global simulation model in which a large‐scale equatorial plasma bubble (EPB) forms during a midnight temperature maximum (MTM). The global model comprises the ionospheric code SAMI3 and the atmosphere/thermosphere code WACCM‐X. We consider solar minimum conditions for the month of August. We show that an EPB forms during an MTM in the Pacific sector and is caused by equatorward neutral wind flows. Although this is consistent with the theoretical result that a meridional neutral wind (V) with a negative gradient (∂V/∂θ < 0) is a destabilizing influence [Huba & Krall, 2013,https://doi.org/10.1002/grl.50292] (where a northward meridional neutral windVis positive andθis the latitude and increases in the northward direction), we find that the primary cause of the EPB is the large decrease in the Pedersen conductance caused by the equatorward winds.more » « less
-
Abstract We compared the performance of DREAM3D simulations in reproducing the long‐term radiation belt dynamics observed by Van Allen Probes over the entire year of 2017 with various boundary conditions (BCs) and model inputs. Specifically, we investigated the effects of three different outer boundary conditions, two different low‐energy boundary conditions for seed electrons, four different radial diffusion (RD) coefficients (DLL), four hiss wave models, and two chorus wave models from the literature. Using the outer boundary condition driven by GOES data, our benchmark simulation generally well reproduces the observed radiation belt dynamics insideL* = 6, with a better model performance at lowerμthan higherμ, whereμis the first adiabatic invariant. By varying the boundary conditions and inputs, we find that: (a) The data‐driven outer boundary condition is critical to the model performance, while adding in the data‐driven seed population doesn't further improve the performance. (b) The model shows comparable performance withDLLfrom Brautigam and Albert (2000,https://doi.org/10.1029/1999ja900344), Ozeke et al. (2014,https://doi.org/10.1002/2013ja019204), and Liu et al. (2016,https://doi.org/10.1002/2015gl067398), while withDLLfrom Ali et al. (2016,https://doi.org/10.1002/2016ja023002) the model shows less RD compared to data. (c) The model performance is similar with data‐based hiss models, but the results show faster loss is still needed inside the plasmasphere. (d) The model performs similarly with the two different chorus models, but better capturing the electron enhancement at higherμusing the Wang et al. (2019,https://doi.org/10.1029/2018ja026183) model due to its stronger wave power, since local heating for higher energy electrons is under‐reproduced in the current model.more » « less
-
Abstract Obtaining meteoroid mass from head echo radar cross section depends on the assumed plasma density distribution around the meteoroid. An analytical model presented in Dimant and Oppenheim (2017a,https://doi.org/10.1002/2017JA023960; 2017b,https://doi.org/10.1002/2017JA023963) and simulation results presented in Sugar et al. (2018,https://doi.org/10.1002/2018JA025265) suggest the plasma density distribution is significantly different than the spherically symmetric Gaussian distribution used to calculate meteoroid masses in many previous studies. However, these analytical and simulation results ignored the effects of electric and magnetic fields and assumed quasi‐neutrality. This paper presents results from the first particle‐in‐cell simulations of head echo plasma that include electric and magnetic fields. The simulations show that the fields change the ion density distribution by less than ∼2% in the meteor head echo region, but the electron density distribution changes by up to tens of percent depending on the location, electron energies, and magnetic field orientation with respect to the meteoroid path.more » « less
-
Abstract We report on the mountain top observation of three terrestrial gamma‐ray flashes (TGFs) that occurred during the summer storm season of 2021. To our knowledge, these are the first TGFs observed in a mountaintop environment and the first published European TGFs observed from the ground. A gamma‐ray sensitive detector was located at the base of the Säntis Tower in Switzerland and observed three unique TGF events with coincident radio sferic data characteristic of TGFs seen from space. We will show an example of a “slow pulse” radio signature (Cummer et al., 2011,https://doi.org/10.1029/2011GL048099; Lu et al., 2011,https://doi.org/10.1029/2010JA016141; Pu et al., 2019,https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL082743; Pu et al., 2020,https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL089427), a −EIP (Lyu et al., 2016,https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL070154; Lyu et al., 2021,https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GL093627; Wada et al., 2020,https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JD031730), and a double peak TGF associated with an extraordinarily powerful and complicated positive‐polarity sferic, where each TGF peak is possibly preceded by a short burst of stepped leader emission.more » « less
